As you age slowly in sl and especially since LL opened the floodgates, you might stumble on a curious resident type that are desperately seeking ways to make money. Since the introduction of the 3 account levels system we have now these hordes gathered under the flag:
“no payment infos on file”.

I usually try to stay unbiased when it comes to sl, trying to look at things from a distance. however what these 3 words tell me are the following points:

-this account was free
-this account can’t be tied to a real identity
-this account never gave a dime to Linden Labs
-this account can’t use the Lindex
Of course all things change and the opinion i can have on these accounts is only valid at the very moment, they can also be an alt of another resident or just testing the water, who know.

In this player category you will have a few courageous designers, wich might become the new Yadni or the new Starax if their courage last 6 months without substancial sum of money (its about the time needed to start breathing a bit and starting a serious designer business).
after the alts and the potential great designers, the rest of the mass is more some kind of mix between:
-paranoid peoples that wouldn’t give their name to a third party even if their life was depending of it
-so called paranoids but that are more playing “rebels of the system”
-wannabe poors wich argue they can’t afford lindens/credit card/whatever but don’t mind getting high speed internet and a good computer to play world of warcraft
– “the destitutes” wich is more like just being at the wrong place at the wrong time and REALLY cant verify even if they wanted to, but these are a tiny minority compared to those that use it as an excuse –> see wannabe poors

And this is why the camping chairs are still running, an account that can’t get L$ unless given to them by another user, wich mean a lot will turn toward easy and FAST ways to get theyr little pocket money, those that come from regular mmorpgs won’t mind the camping chairs , being close to the farming in games like WoW.

The most unscrupulous will use their knowledges or some social engineering to build little scams, like the famous “pay box scam” or the “fake shop clerks” wich unfortunately dammage the reputation of the targeted designer, the fooled customer being unable to know where to go.

The pan handling is prolly the most innocent but disturbing way, with its brother the “pseudo mafia” extorsion, wich is quite fun to hear about

in the unspeakables there is the freebie reselling but i won’t continue on this one.

This makes me wonder who do i harm really if i where to restrict my land to “payment infos on file” and “payment infos used”

-Will i be considered as a rude dictator that stamp peoples of a yellow star based on their origins?
-Is the risk of harming legitimate alts bigger than increasing the “motivation to tier up” ?

I don’t think it will hurt your reputation if you decide to restrict access to payment on file and payment info used. As long as the free accounts get a warning it might encourage them to put payment info on file.

As far as the benefit from this, you will have less polution of undesirable visitors and you will block the rebels that seek to cause harm on your sim without consequences (since they can’t be tracked).

Great work by the way, i’m truely impressed… just wish i could catch you online so i can ask you a few questions!